Issei
I was overflowing with power.
Koneko-chan had called me a lewd Sekiryuutei, and she might be right, but right now I was more powerful than I had ever been.
The [Boosted Gear: Scale Mail] fit around me like it had the times I had used it before.
But this time I had earned it myself.
I hadn’t had to make a deal with Ddraig and give something up in order to use it.
I hadn’t had to use a tool from Azazel-sensei as a crutch to use it.
It was a real Balance Breaker.
And I had gotten by poking Buchou’s nipples.
I will never forget this moment.
[Congratulations, partner. I’ve never had a host achieve their Balance Breaker in such a way… It was awful, and now I feel like I’m going to cry.]
Ddraig’s voice echoed through me with a mix of relief and suffering.
Thank you! And I’m sorry that I’m perverted! It’s how I am, and you know that. Now tell me what I can do.
[You can maintain the Balance Breaker for thirty minutes. For your first time, that is rather good, considering how weak you are in the grand scheme of things. It’s a good starting point.]
Alright. What about my max strength increase with [Boosts]?
[You will be able to reach your max roughly five times and each should last about five minutes. It’s the same for your [Transfer] as well.]
Hopefully that would be enough time.
[You won’t need that much time, partner. Try firing a normal demonic power bullet.]
I didn’t see any reason not to, so I stuck my hand out toward Kuroka.
I summoned a normal dragon shot.
The ball of demonic power I created was much larger than normal, and when I fired at her it flew wide past Kuroka and Biko, and sailed off into the trees.
Then there was the sound of a massive explosion in the distance.
The shockwave came a heartbeat later.
It shook the trees around us and scattered the dirt and debris in the clearing.
The whole forest seemed to shudder.
I blinked.
“…Eh?”
Tannin-ossan’s laughter came down from the sky.
“It’s been a while since I have seen the blast of the Sekiryuutei! You’ve destroyed a whole mountain, Hyoudou Issei! Your attack also blew away the barrier that was placed over us!”
I stared at my own hand.
I managed to destroy a whole mountain without doubling my strength that much?
Ddraig answered my confusion immediately.
[That is the type of shot which expels the collected power of your whole aura through your hand. Because your stored demonic power is still limited, you cannot fire it repeatedly.]
I didn’t really understand all of that, but I understood that I couldn’t fire attacks like that back to back.
Tannin-ossan laughed again from above.
“Fuhahahaha! You’ve finally attained it. It looks like the training you had with me wasn’t a failure. You’re giving off a good pressure!”
“Thank you, Ossan! Your brutal training paid off!” I shouted.
But if the barrier was removed, then someone should notice what is going on and arrive here soon.
That meant that Kuroka and Biko were running out of time before they were the ones trapped here.
Kuroka laughed.
“Ha! How interesting!” she said with a wide grin. “It appears you aren’t as pathetic as I thought. That armor looks impressive, but my mixed shot of Youjutsu and Senjutsu will still take you down!”
Her hands were coated in two different auras as she pointed them at me.
She fired both at me right away.
I debated moving out of the way, or firing back a Dragon Shot in response.
[Wait. Your armor can handle an attack of this level.] Ddriag said to me.
I trusted he knew what he was talking about, so I took the attack head-on.
Both of the balls of aura hit my chest.
I felt the impact and smoke rose from my chest where they hit, but I didn’t feel any pain.
My armor was undamaged.
“Huh? Is that all?” I asked in surprise.
Kuroka looked even more shocked than I was.
“It didn’t work!? No way! I put a considerable amount of spiritual power into that!”
Now I could finish this on my own
I launched forward.
The distance vanished under me as I rapidly approached Kuroka.
Kuroka’s eyes widened in shock and she started firing more of those aura shots at me, but I just ignored them or slapped them aside as I closed in on her.
I swung my fist at her head, but stopped the punch right in front of her face.
The air around her shook from the force of the swing alone.
Kuroka froze, staring at my fist just inches from her nose.
“You hurt Yuki-san and you made our cute kohai cry” I said. “If you come after Koneko-chan again, I won’t hold back against you next time. You may be Koneko-chan’s sister, but right now, you’re my enemy.”
Kuroka jumped back at once.
Her eyes had fear in them now.
“You’re her sister, and you need to make amends for whatever you have done to her.” I said more quietly.
“…You damn brat!” She cursed at me while trembling.
The power of my Balance Breaker and the pressure my armor gave off were too much for her.
“Hyahahaha! This is much more interesting now!” Biko said, stepping forward. “Now there are two dragon bosses! It’d be a lie to say I’m not enjoying this!”
He twirled his staff around like he was ready to start fighting again.
Apparently he was just like Vali when it came to fighting.
It makes sense that they would work together if they like to fight so much, but I don't get it at all.
I’d rather focus on girls than try to start a fight to the death.
Getting to look at and touch oppai is much more preferable.
I flicked my gaze back once toward Buchou, Koneko-chan, and Yuki-san.
The poison mist had cleared earlier, and Buchou and Koneko-chan were looking better for it.
Koneko-chan hadn’t been affected as badly due to her own Senjutsu allowing her to protect herself from it.
Buchou was only slightly pale.
Yuki-chan looked the roughest out of all three of them.
She was injured from her fight with Kuroka and had been exposed to the most poison due to fighting in it.
Koneko-chan looked to be doing something to try and help her as her hands were glowing white as she held them over Yuki-san’s injured side.
But she didn’t seem to really be suffering from much backlash from her spells.
That was something positive from her fight with Kuroka at least.
Buchou met my eyes and despite flushing red when she looked at me, she gave me a firm nod.
I nodded back and turned back to Kuroka and Biko.
I took a step towards them and got ready to finish the fight.
That was when the air tore apart behind Biko and Kuroka.
It looked like someone had peeled back reality and opened a passageway through a tear in space.
A young, blonde haired man with glasses and wearing a suit stepped through the tear.
He held a sword that I could immediately tell was a holy sword.
A holy sword with an aura so strong it made my skin crawl.
The tear in space closed behind him.
“You’ve been here long enough, Bikou, Kuroka. The devils have noticed your presence, and it’s only a matter of time before they surround you both.”
Another Khaos Brigade member was joining our fight.
But it was still five against three.
Bikou looked over his shoulder at the suit wearing man, before sighing and dropping his combat stance.
“What are you supposed to be? Their attendant?” I asked, tilting my head.
The man pushed up his glasses with one hand.
“No. I came to see what Kuroka and Biko were doing that was taking so long. Both of you were supposed to be back a while ago.” He sighed while shaking his head at them. “What were the two of you thinking?
Tannin-ossan shouted down to us immediately.
“Everyone! Don’t get near that man! The sword he’s holding is very troublesome!”
I narrowed my eyes on the weapon.
Tannin continued, his tone darker now.
“The holy king sword Collbrande. Also known as Caliburn. For Caliburn, known to be beyond the strongest holy swords. For its wielder to be allied with the Hakuryuukou is troublesome.”
He gave a bitter laugh.
I looked at him with more wariness after Tannin-ossan’s warning.
If the sword he held was known to be beyond every other holy sword, then he might be stronger than Yuuto-san and Xenovia.
Then Yuki-san spoke.
“The sheath on his back. He has a second holy sword with him.” She called out from beside Koneko-chan.
The glasses guy touched the weapon on his back.
“You are correct. This is the final sword made from the fragments of Excalibur. It’s another impressive sword said to be the strongest of the seven Excaliburs.” He said casually. “Excalibur Ruler.”
I had wondered where the last piece of Excalibur was considering that Freed had three, one hadn’t been stolen, and Irina and Xenovia each had one when we faced Kokabiel.
So this guy was carrying two swords that were considered to be extremely strong.
Kuroka, who had already recovered enough to smile again, looked at the suited man.
“You’re pretty calm about all of this.” She said to him.
He nodded.
“The truth is that I was also interested in the comrades of the ones here.” His eyes slid briefly to me, then toward the others. “Sekiryuutei-dono, could you give my greetings to the holy demonic sword user and the Durandal user? I’d like to face them sometime as fellow swordsmen. They seem to be rather interesting.”
So he knew about Yuuto-san and Xenovia too.
I didn’t know if it was a great idea to tell either of them about this.
Xenovia was never one to back down from a challenge and enjoys fighting.
And Yuuto-san was surprisingly competitive about certain things.
One of those things being swordsmanship and sparring.
So both of them would probably be too interested in facing off against the terrorist swordsman guy.
“Now then, it’s time for us to leave.” The man said before he swung Caliburn and cut another spatial tear behind him, Kuroka, and Biko.
I wouldn’t let them escape like Vali had.
I started forward until I heard Buchou’s shout stopped me.
“Ise! Don’t!”
I obeyed her and turned to look at her as I stopped.
“We won’t be able to stop them from going through the rift, and we can’t chase after them through it without knowing where it goes.” Yuki-san continued for Buchou. “We have to let them go.”
“But…”
I wanted to protest.
They had attacked us, tried to take Koneko-chan, and hurt Yuki-san.
They shouldn’t just get to leave.
“It’s over Ise.” Buchou quietly said.
I looked back at them.
Biko and Kuroka were walking through the rift.
The glasses guy looked at me.
“Goodbye, Sekiryuutei.” He said, before turning and walking through the rift.
The rift closed shortly after, and they were gone.
The clearing went quiet.
I exhaled for what felt like the first time in a full minute.
I let my Balance Breaker drop and the armor around me faded away into light.
Tannin-ossan descended lower.
Buchou moved to stand next to me.
Koneko-chan stayed next to Yuki-san, letting Yuki-san lean on her.
The battle was over.
For now.
And somehow, we had actually made it through.
_________________________________________
Yuki
The first of the Devil soldiers arrived shortly after Biko, Kuroka, and the wielder of Caliburn disappeared.
They came fast once the barrier was down and the mountain-destroying blast from Issei had fully announced our location to half the region.
They spread around the clearing with practiced urgency, checking the perimeter, confirming the enemies were gone, sealing the area, beginning whatever cleanup and containment followed something like this.
The rest of the peerage came with them.
Asia first, because she must have ran ahead of the others worrying that we were hurt.
The moment she saw us, she broke into a sprint toward us.
“Ise-san!”
He turned just in time to catch her before she crashed into him, and she immediately started fussing over the blood on him and the bruises he received from Kuroka’s beating.
Her hands quickly began to glow with a healing light as she frowned with concern in a way that made it impossible to doubt how much she cared.
“Asia, I’m fine!” Issei said as she fussed over him. “You should check on Yuki-san first.”
“I’m alright,” I said, waving Asia off as she quickly turned to check on me. “Issei and I both were injured, but Koneko-chan already healed me a bit. Focus on him first.”
Asia looked like she wanted to protest, but realized the quicker she healed Issei, the quicker I would let her check on me.
Xenovia and Yuuto were only a step behind her.
Xenovia looked around the clearing once, took in the damage, and quickly moved towards us.
Yuuto looked us over, before moving to Rias as she was speaking to some of the Devil soldiers with Tannin.
Akeno arrived after them, and behind her Gasper-kun.
Gasper-kun was still on his dress as he rushed over to us and started fussing over Issei with Asia.
Akeno glanced at Rias and Yuuto before moving over to us.
She stopped by Koneko and I.
“Are you both alright?” She asked us.
All teasing was missing from her voice as she looked over my injuries.
I realized we would be asked that question a lot tonight.
“Buchou and I are fine,” Koneko answered. “Yuki-senpai and Issei-senpai were hurt and will need healing, but they aren’t too badly injured.”
Akeno’s shoulders lost some of the tension in them.
“What happened?” Asia asked, still healing Issei while trying to inspect him at the same time.
“A surprise attack,” Issei replied. “Koneko-chan was lured away from the party by her sister. Yuki-san followed her. Buchou and I followed after that. We ended up here and Koneko-chan's sister was here with Bikou, and then Tannin-ossan showed up and he and Biko started fighting,” Issei stopped to take a breath before continuing. “and then Yuki-san fought Kuroka, Koneko-chan’s sister, while I tried to figure out how to unlock my balance breaker, and—”
“Then Issei attained his Balance Breaker by being disgusting,” Koneko said flatly, cutting it off.
Issei made an offended sound. “That’s unfair, Koneko-chan! Buchou didn’t have an issue with my idea.”
“What did Issei do to unlock his Balance Breaker?” Xenovia asked.
“…He came up with the idea that if he poked Buchou’s nipples, it would cause some shift in him that he needed to achieve his Balance Breaker,” Koneko explained. “And for some reason, it worked.”
Asia flushed.
Gasper looked bewildered.
Akeno laughed softly.
Xenovia stared blankly at Koneko as if she would explain further.
That’s when Rias and Yuuto returned.
“Ara, Buchou. We just heard how you ‘helped’ Ise-kun reach his Balance Breaker.” Akeno said with a grin. “Will that be a new tactic in battle for our peerage?”
Rias flushed.
Yuuto looked confused as she looked between us.
Rias coughed before speaking.
“That will not be happening again, and we can discuss what happened as a group later. We are cleared to leave and I’m sure all of us would like to head back to my family’s estate.”
We all nodded and began to get ready to leave.
Devil soldiers were already spreading out farther into the trees, checking for any sign the intruders had left something behind.
Tannin remained nearby a little while longer.
He exchanged a few short words with the arriving Devil soldiers, then with Rias and Issei, and finally left the rest once it became clear he was no longer needed here.
Then we started back.
We decided to walk back so that Asia could heal me as we moved, and the group could stay together.
We moved in a loose group.
We had security in the form of Devil soldiers who took the lead and outer edges.
Asia remained fixed on healing Issei and I with single-minded devotion.
Xenovia stayed alert, watchful in her practical way.
Gasper-kun hovered awkwardly near Koneko as we walked.
Akeno drifted through the group, while looking graceful, like she always did when she wanted to pay attention to everything at the same time.
Yuuto stayed slightly behind the main group just enough that she could watch everyone.
Koneko walked near the middle with Gasper-kun.
She still looked at me every so often, like she wanted to make sure I was still here.
Each time, she looked away after a moment or two.
The conversation started in fragments.
Questions first.
Short answers.
Pieces of the battle repeated just enough that the others could understand the shape of what had happened.
“Was it really your older sister?" Gasper-kun asked quietly.
Koneko’s ears twitched once. “…yes”
Buchou answered the question further for him.
“She came to take Koneko.”
Gasper-kun looked worried and walked closer to Koenko after that.
Eventually Issei remembered something.
He had been distracted by his beating, Rias’s breasts, and the enemy escaping.
But once the noise of the forest settled, and only the sounds of walking remained, his mind apparently recalled a question he had
He looked over Asia who was still fussing over me as we walked.
“Yuki-san.”
I looked up.
He rubbed the back of his neck once, the way he did when he was about to ask something directly and had only just remembered that he might need to be more delicate about it.
“Back there,” he said, “you muttered something. About maybe not feeling as bad about what happened with Buchou.”
That got a few people’s attention.
I noticed Akeno glancing at Rias and I.
I hesitated.
I had not actually expected him to remember that off hand comment while he was staring down Rias’s chest.
Issei might be many things, but he tended to notice things with the people that he was close to.
I drew breath to answer.
Rias spoke first.
“Yuki-chan and I had a disagreement during the training period, while you and the other were away,” she said smoothly. “We already reconciled over it.”
Her tone was too even.
Issei looked between us.
For one moment I thought he might press.
Instead he exhaled once and nodded.
“Oh. Okay.”
Then Asia shifted from healing me to checking on him again once she noticed that most of my injuries were healed.
Xenovia asked him questions about his Balance breaker and Gasper-kun asked whether he thought the members of the Khaos Brigade would come back.
The conversation moved on.
On the surface.
Yuuto had moved near the front of the group with Akeno.
Both of them glanced back at us.
Yuuto looked at Buchou and me over her shoulder with the kind of knowing expression that made me understand that she knew exactly what Rias hadn’t told Issei.
Akeno looked at the two of us with quiet interest, her curiosity sharper for being held in check.
I could almost feel her deciding how long she wanted to wait before poking for more details.
I only slowed my pace.
That was enough for Rias to notice and slow as well.
The group drifted half a pace ahead without noticing immediately, and Rias fell back with me.
We walked together a few steps in silence while the others continued slightly ahead, talking over one another in low voices.
Issei was laughing again now, which meant Asia’s fussing had not damaged him much.
We were close enough to hear everyone and to respond easily, but far enough to not be overheard easily.
I looked at Rias from the corner of my eye.
She was still composed.
But I could see the guilt in her eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell him?” I asked.
Rias was quiet for a moment.
“Because I want to tell him when it’s just the two of us,” she said as she glanced at me.
That was fair.
“Why haven’t you told him yet?”
“…I wanted him to enjoy the party. He has only been back for two days and I didn’t want to dump it on him right away.” She replied.
I looked ahead at Issei.
At Asia close beside him.
At Xenovia on his other side.
At Gasper-kun asking something that made him wave his hands around while answering.
At the loud, easy shape of his happiness after surviving the battle and attaining Balance Breaker.
Then I looked back at Rias.
“You can put most of the blame on me if that helps,” I said.
She stopped walking for half a step.
Then resumed.
“Yuki-chan.”
“It’s all right.”
“No, it isn’t.”
I frowned slightly. “If he’s upset, it may be easier if he has someone to blame.”
Rias gave me a tired glare.
I continued anyway.
“He might not even be upset,” I said. “You could tell him it was a mistake. Or an accident. That things went too far and you regret it.” I kept my voice even. “The two of you haven’t made anything official, so he may accept that.”
Rias’s expression tightened.
“I am not putting this on you.”
“You don’t have to put all of it on me.”
“I’m not putting any of it on you.”
She held my gaze.
“I’m the one to blame,” she said lowly. “I went to you, I convinced you, and I made things complicated. I am not blaming you.”
I did not answer at once.
To me it was simple enough.
The moment had gone wrong.
She could give an easy excuse or blame me.
I would accept it.
That was all I meant.
Rias seemed to read that from me too.
Her glare softened slightly.
“That isn’t how I want to handle this,” she said. “Even if it would be easier.”
We kept walking a few more steps behind the others.
Ahead of us, Yuuto glanced back once, caught the distance between us, and then very politely looked away before Akeno could notice.
Koneko noticed the gap too.
Then noticed Yuuto seeing it too.
Then looked back at us one more time before facing forward again.
I let out a small breath.
“I just want whatever helps you resolve this with Issei-san in the best way,” I said.
Rias looked at me.
I kept my eyes ahead now.
“So you two can be happy.”
That was what they each deserved.
I didn’t want a mistake Rias had made with me to come between them.
Before she could answer, I let my pace pick back up.
The distance between us and the others closed again naturally, and I rejoined the group without making the change into anything anyone else could comment on directly.
Akeno smiled at me once in passing with far too much interest.
Yuuto looked between Rias and I before nodding to herself and looking back ahead.
Issei and the others didn’t seem to notice much.
Koneko looked at me, then moved to stand with me.
“…is everything alright between you and Buchou?” She asked.
“Yes, it’s all fine.” I replied.
She looked at me before shifting closer as we walked.
The hotel lights were visible through the trees now.
The walk back was almost over.
Hopefully this night would be too.
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